In this candid YouTube conversation, Patrick Mosher shares a personal framework of ten core life philosophies, each paired with a guiding value. He explains each principle in detail, offering the nuance behind the phrasing and how it informs his daily actions. The philosophies include: (1) "The universe is perfect" – valuing the verb of perfecting rather than static perfection; (2) "Live 100% empowered" – rejecting victim language and claiming full agency; (3) "Learn deeply and continuously" – a commitment to voracious learning; (4) "Opportunity exists in every moment" – an abundance mindset that sees growth even in hardship; (5) "Be authentically present in every interaction" – authenticity across contexts; (6) "Shine boldly" – honoring the sacredness of time by using one’s talent purposefully; (7) "Act with spiritual integrity" – integrating wholeness and integrity; (8) "Make a significant impact every day" – measuring daily action impact; (9) "Leave people and places better than I found them" – stewardship rooted in his Eagle Scout experience; (10) "Believe in the innate goodness in people" – a lovingly naive trust in humanity. Throughout, Patrick reflects on how these ideas shape his work at Purdue, his relationships, and his potential future book. The tone is conversational, reflective, and occasionally humorous, revealing his personal values, self‑awareness, and desire to live intentionally.
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Do you want to hear my life philosophy?
Yeah, I was going to ask, but I didn't, like, want to be all, like, nosy and stuff. But, you know, I did.
I know. Same here. You are very nosy.
Yes.
Where Sean is not. Okay. I'm just going to, like, evaluate the two of you on the call here.
So you're welcome, Sean, because, you know, I did it for you.
I appreciate it. All right. So here's Patrick Mosher's life philosophies and values. I literally have them on a little card. And in parentheses next to each philosophy is a, is the value attached to that. So here we go. And by the way, you'll probably recognize a lot of these. Okay. The first one is the universe is perfect. Okay. Now the value in that, which I had never written this down before, is perfection. Now, Shawn's very familiar with this in that it's like perfection. Oh, yeah, I know perfection. It's like, no, no, no, no. It's the verb to perfect, meaning I value being in the world perfecting things. So I don't value perfection as it's absolutely 100% truth and correct what I do. That's not what I'm talking about. I value the process of putting something in the world and then perfecting it. The verb. Yes, it's the verb of perfecting, not the noun perfection, I guess. That's the first one. The second one, you've heard me say this one before, and this is also important. This was also a good test for me. How often have people heard me say my values? That means people surround me as well, helping me live into my values. If you can say them out loud, you three can help me live into these. And you go like, really? Was that really a view of the universe being perfect? It's like, oh, good one. No, it's not. And so they help you do this too. Okay, um, second one, live 100% empowered. And this is my empowerment. This is all about empowerment. And, and the thing that gets under my skin is when— and I'm getting so much more sensitive about that, particularly in today's world of victim language. And you've heard me say that before. Even like, oh, Amber, you make me happy is a victim mentality.
Because you are making me. Yeah.
You're making me something. You don't make me anything. Amber, thank you so much because I feel happy with, or I feel gratitude for you. What a different way to say that you make me happy. You just gave your agency away to that person. They own your happiness. They can give it to you or not. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. But it's also, you make me angry is not true on the other side. So this is all about the live 100% empowered. And I thought, oh, this was good too. And I know this is recorded. And I have to be careful with this, but when I thought about coming to Purdue and talking about living 100% empowered, I thought I would start getting hit with, yeah, that's baby boomer white privilege, that I'd get hit with that. I have not. But I also, there's a long story here too over the weekend. I don't think about privilege. I think about blind spots. We all have blind spots to other people's experiences. And so I think about that. Okay, number 3. I need to go through these faster. See, I'm already writing the book in front of you guys, so I got to stop doing that. Okay, third one. You've heard me say this one before. Learn deeply and continuously. The value attached to that is voracious learning. I just value learning so much of learning things, learning to do new things. That's why I'm at Purdue. What better way to do that is to spend 3 years in an institution like Purdue? Okay, number 4. I've never said this one aloud before, but the value's there, but the core philosophy wasn't. Opportunity exists in every moment. And that is the value is abundance. You've heard me talk about abundance before, but that's kind of the, the life philosophy. Opportunity exists in every moment. Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah, it does, Patrick. That's good. Very woo woo. Great. No, no, no. Opportunity exists when I'm sitting on the floor of my bathroom, cacking my lungs out, crying because I can't breathe. Opportunity exists. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because that's where the learning is the steepest. The learning curve's the steepest in those moments. So, so opportunities exist in every moment. Okay. Number 5, be authentically present in every interaction. Mm-hmm. And I'd say that's the core of my, uh, being, um, and why we're all talking together is because I, I just think being authentically present in every interaction is such a value of mine. And so that's authenticity as a value. And part of that too is be the same person no matter who you're talking to, which is tough at this institution right now because how some tenured faculty treat staff is horrible. And it's like, no, that's not being authentic through and through. Okay. Number 6, you've heard me say this one before, shine boldly. But I'd never attached the value to that. And I wrote down here the sacredness of time. The reason why I shine boldly is not because I want to make a lot of money, rise fast, which you guys all know that about me. Um, but, but it's not, you know, also it's putting my talent in the world where it shines the most, right? That we make the most impact that way. I get that too. But it really is more about the sacredness of time. You don't have time to dink around. You have time to rejuvenate. Rejuvenate, learn, think, but then shine boldly. Number 7, act with spiritual integrity. And the value of that is integrity. Now I could do a whole thing on what is spiritual integrity. But it's interesting too, uh, I've never— and this was the, uh, eye-opener for this— the root of integrity is similar to integration. It's the same root. Did you all know that? I didn't know that. I was like, oh, so integration. And the other word, the noun they put with integrity is wholeness, because it's integrated. So integrity, we think of that as kind of similar to authentic in some ways. It's not. It's different in some ways because it's about integration. And so we're constantly integrating. Right now, we're in a society of a lot of change. And so, acting with integrity here is taking it in and integrating that. That's a lot tougher ask. Number 8, make a significant impact every day. Every day. Every moment. But every day. At the end of the day, I have an assessment on my 10 questions. Did I make a significant impact today on a 10-point scale? 7, 8, 9, 10. It's pretty good because when I do, and then set up your world to be around that. You guys help me to mark usually a 10 on the days that I have Sim because it's like I had an impact today. So thank you for that. The value attached to that is action matters. Here's the thing about that. My wife is an introverted, she thinks about, she's a reflector. So this is not one of her values. And I'm not judging. These aren't, I'm judging other people on these. This is how I look at my life. This would not be a significant one for her. Because action doesn't matter as much to her. How she feels does. Okay, number 9, and I've already said this one. Leave people and places better than I found them. Stewardship. Leave people and places better than I found them. And I started that by saying I leave places better than I found them because I was an Eagle Scout. And so when we were in scouting, you always had to be arm apart and walk through the campsite after everything was packed up, ready to go, and you'd have to clean up the pieces. And it was always picking up gum wrappers and stuff that other kids put on the ground. So I like leave places better than I found them. And I said, no, leave people in places better than I found them. That's so good. And so I'm in the process of trying to do that. Not trying, but I'm doing that at Purdue right now. It's like, how do I— so I've done some great work, but how do I put a bow on that? This last phase before I leave. Number 10. Oh, this is so good. Okay, number 10. Uh, believe in the innate goodness in people. I believe in the innate goodness in people. Oh, it's almost making me cry. The value attached to that is I'm lovingly naive. I'm lovingly naive. And I do tell stories about this at Accenture about I just trust the people are good. And in some ways I'm so gullible and people would watch, say, you know, they're going to take advantage of you on that thing. And I was like, maybe, but, you know, maybe they're just, you know, and so I always like, and then I get nailed on this one a lot. But man, what a way to go in the world. I'm just kind of lovingly naive about people. And I think that's— it is a value that I have. So those are my 10. So should I write a book? Should I write a book around those?
